


The Horse Lord's Dream

by FoxRafer



Category: Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Angst, Back to Middle-Earth Month, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-06
Updated: 2012-03-06
Packaged: 2017-11-01 16:12:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/358766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FoxRafer/pseuds/FoxRafer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for B2MeM Challenge O68 on my 'AU: Who Lives and Who Dies?', 'Art Supplies' and 'Smells' Bingo cards; and O67 on my 'Poetic Language' Bingo card.</p>
    </blockquote>





	The Horse Lord's Dream

**Author's Note:**

> Written for B2MeM Challenge O68 on my 'AU: Who Lives and Who Dies?', 'Art Supplies' and 'Smells' Bingo cards; and O67 on my 'Poetic Language' Bingo card.

That night at Dunharrow he saw himself in a dream, a waxen figure in royal robes, the colors far richer and bolder than anything in reality. There was a graininess to the image and here and there smudges of pigment, and he realized he was looking at a portrait, the canvas stretched taut in a carved wooden frame. When he woke he believed it was a sign of his death, an effigial image of a long dead king, more proof that he rode to his doom.

It'd been many years since he abdicated the throne to Éomer, prosperous and peaceful years he was proud to note. But now sitting with Merry, a most treasured Knight of the Mark, his mind drifted to days when he'd been certain his death was imminent. Looking at the completed portrait Merry had brought to him, a gift "from the Shire" as he had so eloquently presented it, he thought of that dream again, remembered believing how very wrong his interpretation had been. And yet now sitting before the fire, the warmth not quite reaching his old bones and his body suffused with a gentle weariness, he realized in the end it _had_ been prophetic.

Merry's pipeweed filtered through the air, pulling memories of long ago days into his mind, and he was comforted, grateful for the blessings they'd fought hard to secure and for the company of dear friends and loved ones as he drew his final breaths.


End file.
